By Miranda La Rose
Fewer women are currently taking an active role in local government administration compared with their participation just a decade ago, participants at a democracy forum contended.
Stabroek News
June 29, 2001
However, Urmia Johnson, who delivered the main presentation at the opening session of a consultation on `Empowering Women in Local Government' stressed the need for substantial quantitative and qualitative changes to broaden women's participation at all levels of governance.
This observation and the need to ensure sustained involvement by women sparked a lively debate during the morning session of the day-long meeting at the Ocean View Convention Centre at Liliendaal on Wednesday.
The consultation organised by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) is in keeping with an agreement the NDI, the Carter Center International (CCI) and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) have with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to conduct a programme on Democracy in Governance in Guyana for the next three to five years.
The objective of the consultation was to develop a strategy to increase participation by women in the local government elections, due to be held next year.
In a brief address, Minister in the Ministry of Local Government Clinton Collymore welcomed the initiative to hold the consultation, stating that the government thinks it is crucial to have women involved in every level of governance.
Noting that the government sees vast potential for women in the local government system, he said that in addition to the 65 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils, plans are in train to create ten more and an additional ten municipalities. The ten new municipalities would be Bartica, Charity, Mabaruma, Mahaica, Diamond/Grove, Lethem, Parika, Mahdia, Rosignol and Supenaam.
Observing that the status of the Amerindian Village Councils has been maintained over the years, Collymore said that there was need to assimilate the Amerindians into the mainstream of the Guyanese society but that will only be done after consultation with the Amerindian communities.
Minister in the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Bibi Shadick said that the consultation has begun at an exciting time when the first female chancellor was appointed in the Caribbean.
She bemoaned the fact that provision was made for just one-third of the candidates on every list contesting the national and regional elections to be women, stating that it should have been at least 50/50 so that at the end of the day more women would have been involved at the highest decision-making level.
Nevertheless, she said the fact that she is in office now reflected the confidence rural communities are now beginning to have in women.
She said that rural women have the potential to run for office in the NDCs and in other areas but they tend to keep their potential down to keep peace with their menfolk who believe that they are the natural leaders.
She advised that in the consultations and programme planning, parallel consultations should be held with men and some integrated sessions with both genders so they can understand that their roles are all crucial to the development process. She said that men need to be reminded that women love them but they too have foresight and could make wise decisions and women do not want to emasculate them.
In her presentation, Johnson noted that for women to stand as candidates to contest local government elections for the benefit of communities, they need to build self-esteem, develop public relations, negotiating and advocacy skills and they also require finance to organise and mobilise outreach programmes and campaigns. More importantly to ensure success on the job, she said that women need to eschew political division. A former minister in the PNC administration, she said that in the interest of women's development she has had to transcend political barriers and work with a number of women from different political backgrounds, including Andaiye of the Working People's Alliance and former PPP/Civic minister of human services and social security, Indra Chandarpal.
Citing another example of transcending political background, she referred to the Craig/Caledonia NDC where the candidates, known supporters of both the PPP/Civic and the PNC successfully took office in the 1994 elections which they still hold to the present time. She said that the NDC has emerged as the only true local government body.
Johnson added that in holding public office, based on research, women tend to take on portfolios relating to welfare and they deal less with finance and public works where she feels many challenges lie. The consultations to be held under this project will provide participants with background information on women in local government in Guyana; provide comparative information about similar projects in other countries; share experiences of previous first-time candidates; obtain input from participants with regards to issues that need to be addressed during the project such as training needs, networking opportunities, research and finance, among other areas.
NDI interim director, Chris Homan, who chaired the opening session noted that the programme `More Participatory Governance and Rule of Law' consists of five programme components: improved and more informed law and regulation making; increased capacity to resolve disputes in a timely manner; sustained institutional capacity to conduct free and fair elections; civil society influences on public policy; and strengthened local governance.
The consultation, which falls under the fifth component, attracted a cross-section of women from the political spectrum as well as others involved in non-governmental organisations who requested that consultations be held in rural and hinterland areas as "Georgetown is not Guyana".
Homan assured that interested candidates, irrespective of their political parties, will be invited to participate in non-partisan training sessions and other activities designed to assist them in contesting local government elections.